Instant Pot pork belly recipe is here! If you love this salty slab is served as a side dish or an appetizer to start your meal. How to make it fall-apart tender and then crisp it at the end using our air fryer pork belly instructions.
Wondering how to cook pork belly? There are several different methods you can use but if you don’t want to heat your whole house, use this Instant Pot pork belly recipe instead. It comes out tender, then you can air fry it to crisp at the end. After you enjoy this, try our other Instant Pot recipes on our site. (affiliate links present)
What is pork belly?
This slab is a boneless, fatty cut of meat from the underside (belly) of the pig. It has layers of meat and lots of thick fat, making it rich, flavorful, and ideal for slow roasting, pressure cooking under high pressure, braising, made into burnt ends or caramelized like our Pork Belly in the Oven.
Now if you have the “other pressure cooker pot” this is even easier because it has both functions together. As a Ninja Foodi recipe you won’t have to lift it out at all, you can just air crisp once it’s tender, slice and enjoy.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Ingredient Notes
- The size here was a 2 pound pork belly with skin. That means we are cooking a slab, not the whole thing. It is best to get this fresh from the butcher vs. defrosting from frozen for sure.
- Salt is needed for flavor or else it will be rather bland. As far as any other seasonings use what you would put on bacon basically (which is usually just Kosher flakes)
- Water is typically what is used to cook it but literally any liquid would work, even beer to add lots of flavor!
Tips
Decide whether you want to broil or air fry it when it is done. That way you can preheat once it reaches just 1 minute left and get that going. Once the lid is removed allow it to sit for about 5 minutes before using large tongs to remove. Have a cutting board or large platter ready to transfer out of the pot. If crisping dab the outside to dry as much as possible before doing so for best results.
When you remove it off the trivet it will be really soft. You won’t be able to slice it at this point. In order to get it to more of a workable state and allow the salt to really flavor and seep into it, you should throw it into the fridge. Then you can slice and serve as is, slice or cube like burnt ends.
Instant Pot Pork Belly Recipe
Equipment
- 1 trivet
Ingredients
- 1-2 lb pork belly, with large fat pad
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 c water
Instructions
- Rinse pork belly. Set trivet inside pot with 2 c water inside. Set pork on trivet and close lid and steam valve. Set to high pressure for 65 minutes if left whole. (if cut into 1" cubes in vegetable steamer basket set to 19 minutes + 15 minute natural release)
- Allow steam to naturally release once done. Remove from pot and pat dry. Coat the fat with salt. Poke top surface with holes with a knife.
- Place on a plate lightly covered with plastic wrap. Keep in the fridge overnight. Uncover and scrape as much salt off as possible.
- Preheat air fryer to 200 degrees, spray basket and air fry for 40 minutes. Then turn up to 325 F and cook an additional 10-20 minutes to brown the top crispy as you'd like. (if you're cooking it cubed cook at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes shaking basket halfway through)
- Remove and let sit for 10 minutes before slicing and enjoying.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can you save pork belly fat?
Yes! If you like using lard in other recipes, pour the drippings into a glass jar and allow it to cool. It will solidify into a thick paste of sorts. Then close the lid and refrigerate it to use up to 3 months later.
I give you a choice below. If you keep it whole as you see here it will obviously take a lot longer. But if you cube it into bite size pieces similar to what we did with our air fryer steak bites it will take a fraction of the time. Whole pork belly takes about an hour where cubed is closer to 20 minutes.
If you have cubed this instead of leaving it whole it will get a lot crispier and take less time. Instead of 40 minutes and adjusting the time halfway thru you can just preheat to 400. Spray basket first and cook for 6-8 minutes or until they are as crispy as you’d like. Shake basket or flip pieces over halfway through cook time for best results.
How do you crisp pork belly?
The air fryer is hands down the all time best way to do just this. There is no other method, other than braised pork belly in the oven, that will get it crispy again and bring out those bacon like flavors to the surface. If you don’t want any crunch per say then yes baking it would be best to tender it up again. 300 for 20 – 30 minutes should do it, flipping halfway through.
Preheat to 200 degrees, spray basket, add the pork with fat side up and air fry for 40 minutes. Then turn up to 325 F and cook an additional 15 minutes up to 20 minutes to brown the top crispy as you’d like. Remove and let sit for 10 minutes before slicing and enjoying.
Then you get crispy pork belly on the top while the underside is still fork tender pork and will melt in your mouth. Sprinkle some brown sugar mixed with dark soy sauce on the top or toss smaller pieces in it for a sweet savory coating.
How do you eat pork belly?
Sprinkle some diced green onions on the top to make it “pretty” and just enjoy with some boiled eggs in the morning. You can make this in under 25 minutes and is a great beginning to your day. I personally enjoy it as crispy as possible seasoned with just salt and pepper only. So it’s kinda like bacon in the air fryer but thicker with more flavor if you ask me.
Is pork belly healthier than bacon?
Because it isn’t smoked, salted or really manipulated or altered at all it is better. I wouldn’t categorize it as a healthy food, but healthier than once it’s been processed. Anything in it’s most natural state is better for you obviously. If you want to make this more like bacon initially you can air fry it at the beginning, we’ll share that later. This is where you will start:
Other easy pork recipes you’ll love
If you want to use it the next day in a dish there are several ways to do just that too. My favorite is probably dicing it up and throwing it in with eggs when I make fried rice. If you want to try a few other Instant Pot pork recipes, give our pork adobo recipe recipe next.
Don’t throw them out please. Repurposing leftovers is the way to go especially if you are on a budget for sure. There is always some new pork recipe you can come up with that may become your new favorite go to day “old” dish.
The latter is uncured meaning it isn’t salted like their sliced counterpart is. Unsmoked and unsalted means as is there really isn’t much flavor to this. YOU add what you like to give it the taste you want. There is a lot more fat in a piece of belly too.
If you don’t see this in your local grocery store, I’d ask. Sometimes it is in the back with the butcher and they can cut any size you’d like. Other times I have only found it frozen next to the others like frozen oxtail and burgers. That is handy to have because it lasts longer and you can thaw it whenever you’re ready to cook it.
